FCC Cracks Down on Text Spam | CNN Business

Washington
CNN
—

The Federal Communications Commission is cracking down on text spam with new rules for telecommunications companies, citing a surge in consumer complaints in recent years related to unwanted bots.

The new rules force phone providers to block text messages from suspicious sources, including phone numbers that appear to be “invalid, unassigned or unused.” Carriers will also have to block text messages from phone numbers that say they never send text messages or that the government has identified as numbers that are not used for texting, the FCC said.

The move mirrors a similar effort by the US government to shut down illegal robocalls, which has resulted in at least one phone provider being completely cut off from the US phone network. Robocall monitoring services say the effort has been successful in reducing the volume of robocalls. But in recent years, an explosion of spam and scams appears to have taken its place, resulting in more than 18,000 consumer complaints to the FCC last year.

The FCC is mulling additional regulations that could, among other things, enforce the protections of the Do Not Call first-time texting registry. The FCC said it is also considering making it harder for marketers to use a single consumer consent to flood that user with calls and texts from multiple sources and numbers.

Unwanted or scam bots can pose an even greater risk to consumers than unwanted robocalls, the FCC said, because unlike phone calls, text messages can contain malicious links that can infect an intel device · smart with dangerous software.

“Scammers have discovered that sending us messages about a package you never ordered or a payment that never went through along with a link to a shady website is a quick and easy way to get us to connect with our devices and fall prey to fraud,” FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement.

The FCC voted to adopt the new rules in a unanimous 4-0 decision.